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BEACHNET==> FYI >> Toxicity of Chlorine to Aquatic Life
November 6, 2008
Good Afternoon:
In 1991, I published a paper entitled "Toxicity of Chlorine and Ammonia
to Aquatic Life: Chemistry, Water Quality Criteria, Recent Research, and
Recommended Future Research" (Melzian & Jaworski, 1991; Water Quality
Standards for the 21st Century; U.S. EPA).
Even though this paper may now be somewhat outdated, some of you may
obtain useful information about:,
** Commonly Used Terms (for Chlorine);
** Basic Chlorine Chemistry in Water (Disinfection By-products;
Freshwater and Seawater);
** Chlorine Water Quality Criteria (e.g., please see
http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/criteria/library/ambientwqc/chlorine1984.pdf
);
** Toxicity of Chlorine to Aquatic Life;
** Ammonia and Chlorine: Joint Toxicity; and
** Future Research Needs (Chlorine Studies).
If any of you would like to receive the PDF File for this paper, please
let me know. Thanks.
Brian
U.S. Interagency Working Group on Ocean Observations (IWGOO):
** http://ioos.noaa.gov/partners/national.html &
http://ocean.ceq.gov/about/sup_jsost_iwgs.html **
Marine Protected Areas Federal Advisory Committee (
http://mpa.gov/mpafac/fac.html )
===============================================
Brian D. Melzian, Ph.D.
Oceanographer/Project Officer
Director's Office
U.S. EPA (ORD/NHEERL)
Atlantic Ecology Division (AED)
27 Tarzwell Drive
Narragansett, Rhode Island 02882
http://www.epa.gov/aed
(401) 782-3188 (Office)
(401) 782-3030 (Fax)
melzian.brian@epa.gov
"Milne,Jacqui
[Burlington]"
<Jacqui.Milne@e To
c.gc.ca> <beachnet@great-lakes.net>
Sent by: cc
owner-beachnet@
great-lakes.net Subject
BEACHNET==> FW: responses
11/06/2008
01:28 PM
Hi All.
Below are the responses I received..
Thank you again!
Jacqui
Dear all
Here's the site of the company I mentioned is doing the Job. Not very
useful, I suppose, since it's strictly in Portuguese but it provides at
least a contact in case you should wish to contact them directly:,
http://www.areimar.pt/
I phoned them up to check what info I could raise and send to you and
I've been told the iodine concentration used is the lowest possible to
differentially reduce counts of known pathogens (i.e. dermatophytes)
instead of all existing flora and they calculate the original spray
based on the analysis of the organic matter and other iodine reducing
concentration materials (for example Iron). This is followed by chemical
and microbiological analysis of results (this part is made at the lab
before scaling up to live usage). I've also been told the iodine
solution used (diluted as much as necessary to use appropriately) is
purchased from Denmark and is 99% biodegradable and chemically
stabilised (I've no idea what brand or detailed chemical composition). I
can tell that final concentration of active iodine is as low as the
following: Mortality of a human being by iodine would require eating
25kg of the contaminated sand and it doesn't kill the entire flora.
Hope this helps a bit.
Roger: Our sand is always a mixture of both silica and carbonates and
the composition varies enormously throughout our coast.
Regards to all,
have experience in analysis of the result of al alternative sand
treatment that takes place every summer nearby Lisbon (Cascais). Iodine
spray. Results are negative every time treatment occurs, treatment takes
place at the minimum inhibitory concentration levels and is applied once
every two to three weeks to maintain low bacterial count.
Regards,
João Brandão
Departamento de Doenças Infecciosas
Instituto Nacional de Saúde Dr. Ricardo Jorge
Av. Padre Cruz 1649-016 Lisboa, Portugal
Tel: (+351) 217.519.247, Fax: (+351) 217.526.400
www.insa.pt / www.onsa.pt
P
Proteja a natureza: pense na necessidade de imprimir este e-mail antes
de o fazer.
Protect nature: think again before you print this e-mail.
During part of the 1970's the City of Cleveland ran an extensive program
of chlorination of bathing waters behind a large curtain that separated
the swimming area from the rest of the lake. Regrowth was an issues, as
was concern over the production of chlorine by-products. We may have a
report on this effort in our archives. If interested respond or call.
Lester Stumpe
Manager of Watershed Programs, Policy and Technical Support
Phone: 216-881-6600 Ext. 6830
Fax: 216-881-7703
Email: stumpeL@neorsd.org
Hi Jacqui,
I would expect the chlorine to be bound to organic substances
immediately so that a disinfection would not be efficient and would only
create cancerogenic disinfection by-products. Our veterinarians
sometimes suggest to use peroxide (which I don’t think much of either),
but why don’t you try to avoid contamination by waste water treatment
and wait for the sun and the low nutrient level to kill off the
remaining faecal bacteria in the water and the sand? Sorry about the
comment, but we don’t believe in chlorinating the environment J
Christiane
--------------
Prof. Dr. Christiane Höller
Dept. of Hygiene
Bavarian Health and Food Safety Authority
Veterinärstr. 2
85764 Oberschleißheim
Germany
Tel.: 089/31560-236
Fax: 089/31560-458
Mail: christiane.hoeller@lgl.bayern.de
Jacqui, I have not heard of using chlorine for that purpose. Sounds like
they want to treat it like a swimming pool. Not a good idea in my
opinion as some of the breakdown products of chlorine in an organic
environment may be potentially harmful (i.e., chloroforms). There is
obviously significantly more organic matter in a beach environment than
a pool. Chlorine will kill many pathogens at a right concentration, but
how to maintain that concentration in a sand environment would be the
question. Also, some pathogens like Cryptosporidium may only be
inactivated with long contact times (concentrations x time), which may
not be feasible in a sand environment. Then there is the issue of harm
to other organisms in the sand (i.e., inverts, beneficial bacteria,
etc.). Good luck.
Michael Adam, M.S.
Senior Biologist
Lake County Health Department
3010 Grand Avenue
Waukegan, IL 60085
(847) 377-8002
www.co.lake.il.us/health/ehs/lakes.asp
Hello Jacqui,
Our utility had a major spill in 2006 at Manhattan Beach, CA and
initiated a thorough beach sand chlorination effort. The
area affected did not include the swash zone. This event occurred prior
to my employment at the Sanitation Districts, however I am the project
manager for the Supplemental Environmental Project that was part of the
Settlement Agreement that followed the event. Although I don't have
immediate access to the reports and files, I know they are available and
will look into it. I will send you what I can. For now, I can give you
my personal opinion and some info.... The chlorination effort was
effective, but some of the areas required treatment up to five times.
There were no protocols so they had to develop them as part of the
effort. Further, the only microbial parameters evaluated were total and
fecal coliforms, enterococci, and HPC. All of these are bacteria, like
their pathogenic counterparts, are easily inactivated by chlorine.
Viruses are, too, but they were not evaluated. I do know that protozoan
pathogens are not easily inactivated by chlorine but these were also not
assessed.
My advice to you is to reconsider chlorination to permanently 'fix' the
'problem'. There is so much evidence that the E. coli are naturally
occurring and can multiply in the environment if the conditions are
favorable. However, they are very good indicators for bigger problems
that could be happening in your area. Consider a thorough evaluation of
potential contamination sources and address these first (such as septic,
leaking sewers, overflows, illegal discharges, etc.). If the E. coli
levels are not explainable, consider that this may be the natural
background levels for these organisms in this environment and it is
possible that another water quality indicator would be more appropriate.
Lastly, follow the USEPA efforts to update the 1986 criteria and
methods, the epidemiological studies that are ongoing as part of these
efforts, and plan for some significant changes for USEPA beach water
quality monitoring recommendations in 2012.
Finally, check out the Southern California Coastal Water Research
Projects website and reports for ongoing research and technical reports.
See the SCCWRPS website: http://www.sccwrp.org/
I have also attached the three experts reports for the BEACH Act
litigation for further information.
Good luck to you!
Kind regards,
Terri Slifko,
Hi Jacqui, at the National Beaches Conference in Niagara Falls in
October, 2006, there was a presentation given by Kristen Ruffell of the
Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County, entitled, "South Bay Cities
Sanitation District's January 15, 2006 Wastewater Spill," where they
used a dilute bleach solution to kill the bacteria. I was going to
refer you to EPA's beach watch website for the conference proceedings,
but the link is not working right now, so I'll check on it and will
advise. But - in the meantime, if you send me your fax number I can fax
you her slides if you'd like to check them out before contacting Kristen
at: (562) 908-4288; kruffell@lacsd.org
Holly Wirick (WQ-16J)
Water Quality Branch
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
77 W. Jackson Blvd.
Chicago, IL 60604.
(312) 353-6704
(312) 886-7804 (fax)
Jacqui,
In early 2006 there was a large (approx 2 million gallon) sewage spill
in Manhattan Beach near Los Angeles. Much of the spill was “contained”
on the beach. After as much of the sewage as possible was recovered, Los
Angeles County Sanitation District (LACSD) sprayed the beach sand with a
bleach solution to attempt to disinfect it. There was a lot of trial and
error involved, and eventually LACSD held a conference to develop a
standardized spill contingency plan to better deal with future
emergencies. More details can be found here:
http://www.lacsd.org/info/publications_n_reports/other_publications/spillcontingency.asp
Rick Wilson
Surfrider Foundation
Direct Phone 949-732-6415
Jacqui:
The City of Chicago rejected using chlorine because of potential
chemical residuals that might be hazardous to humans.
Best Regards,
David C. Rockwell, MS, MBA
Biology Program Manager
Environmental Scientist, Monitoring and Indicators Branch Great Lakes
National Program Office, G-17J U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
77 W. Jackson Blvd, Chicago Illinois 60604 Tel 312-353-1373, Fax
312-353-2018 Rockwell.David@epa.gov
Hi Jacqui,
I think these two articles will provide you with some information.
http://www.wrrc.hawaii.edu/research/project_fujioka/cupridyne.htm
http://www.healthebay.org/assets/pdfdocs/newsletters/currents/2006_spring.pdf
Although it is basically on Enterococci, there should be no difference.
There were two spills in California in 2006 where chlorine was used to
disinfect. A workshop was held in Los Angeles to discuss the findings. I
tried to find the workshop material but could not. The workshop was
sponsored by Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts. If I recall
correctly, it was very expensive, complaints about fumes, results were
dubious, and in hindsight, it might have been better to let the spill
discharge into the ocean. The two beaches were Hermosa and Manhattan
Beach in Calif. Hoep this helps you.
Watson Okubo
Monitoring & Analysis Section Chief
Clean Water Branch
Department of Health
919 Ala Moana Blvd#301
Honolulu, Hawaii 96814
Phone: 808 586-4309
Jacqui,
We presented at the EPA beaches conference in Niagara falls last year,
through Dr. Jenny Jays of UCLA, who conducted experiments with iodine
(CupriDyne technology), and achieved 5log10 reduction of selected
bacteria species. As a fellow Canadian, I would be happy to share this
data with you; just tell me where to send it.
Also, another study is underway in Hawaii courtesy of Dr. Roger Fujioka
of UofH. The CupriDyne is disinfecting, but he is running some other
tests for us before fully reporting.
The US EPA is happy with our overall efforts to rteplace chlorine in
these applications. Iodine is part of a natural marine cycle, and EPA is
about to publish a reregistration of iodine which exonerates it a great
deal from its toxicology history.
Pls advise.
Best,
________________________________________________________
Kenneth R. Code
Director & Chief Technology Officer
BioLargo, Inc. (USA)
IOWC Technologies Inc. (Canada)
Glastonbury Technologies Inc. (AB)
Edmonton, AB Canada
Irvine, CA USA
Jacqui Milne B.Sc.
Physical Scientist
Environment Canada
Aquatic Ecosystem Management Research Division
867 Lakeshore Rd.
Burlington, Ont..
L7R 4A6
tel: 905-336-6432
fax: 905-336-4699
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